Dark Water

Chapter 4

"Maybe she's mimicking you? They're smart creatures, they learn fast." Mr. Gulliver lit a cigar as he spoke.

"I didn't eat what she gave me this time. She let me touch her tail. I think that if I only touch her and don't accept her strange offerings then she realizes that we're just friends."

"Well, sharing food is a grandiose thing with them. once they catch something it's theirs. They usually only share with their young or their partners. if they're the group leader they tend to either kick out the weaker ones or nurse them back to health. They're very matriarchal societies, you'll rarely see a male. The females tend to be stronger than the males, although you'll get the occasional one that's scrawny compared to the males. usually, the mother was malnourished or had a defect which caused their young to be the same way." He stopped and took a puff of his cigar.

"How did you find all of this out?" He sighed, taking another puff before answering.

"I used to spend months out on the big sea, following their packs and studying them. Your friend was one of the ones I studied back when she was a youngling. She used to fight a lot; I'm surprised she isn't covered in scars. She used to beat up the males, back in her pack. I watched her kill one for stealing her food off a rock one time. gruesome sight."

"I'm still shocked she didn't kill me in the water."

"She isn't in a pack at the moment. The only thing she was defending was her food, which she seemed to quickly realize you weren't going to take."

"She likes to play with eels." She took out the small toy she had stitched, and Mr. Gulliver couldn't help but laugh.

"I remember they used to get thrown up onto my boat in the middle of the night by her, out on the water. Scared the life out of me, though one of them had crawled in and was coming for my supplies." He turned and looked behind him, his face becoming hard as a man was walking towards him. It was Arlid, one of the other sailors. He was practically known for terrorizing kids in the town with stories of sirens, saying that if they came near the dock they would get pulled under and drowned. He also happened to come from a lengthy line of fishermen, and avid siren hunter conspiracists. She tucked the toy away in her coat, standing up. She watched as he took a puff of his cigarette, as he came towards them, the smoke coming out white, mixed with his warm breath.

"You two seem to be coming down here quite often lately," He tapped the ash of his cigarette into the water, and Mihris couldn't help but grimace. "Anything interesting going on?"

"Just talking about fishing, giving Blue some old tips."

"You know, I've always been interested in that hair of yours," He took a step towards Mihris, an odd smile on his face. "I don't think I've ever seen a human being with hair that color, naturally." She glanced down at the loose strands of hair she had from the blowing wind, the midnight blue whisps a tangled mess.

"I get it from my mother."

"I thought you were an orphan?"

"I met her once before she died."

"Oh." He dropped his cigarette into the dark water, it making a small tendril of steam as the flame was snuffed out.

"That's bad for the fish," She got down and leaned over the edge, picking the burnt cigarette up from the water. "You of all people should care about that." She handed it back to him, wiping the icy water on her coat. She began to walk away, making it to the snowing bank. They needed to shovel a path so that they could get down to the docks better soon.

"Hey Blue!" She turned and looked at him, her loose strands of hair blowing in the cold breeze. "Sorry about what my son did to you. I thought I raised him better."